Dmitry Bivol Destroys Samuel Clarkson in Four Rounds – Full Fight Card Coverage

By Joshua “City” Brewer (At Ringside)

There was another night of exciting action at the MGM at National Harbor this weekend and Showtime kicked off another edition of their “ShoBox: The New Generation” series. 2,000+ fans were in attendance.

The evening started with a bout that was essentially ended early. Sergey Kuzmin, 10-0, 7 KO’s, defeated Keenan Hickman, 5-2-1, 2 KO’s, when Hickman as unable to continue after the third round due to what appeared to be an injury to his arm. While it doesn’t answer all questions for Kuzmin, he was able to get some work in and will likely rebound with another fight quickly.

Rodney Hernandez, 10-5-2, 2 KO’s Vs Joey Dawejko, 17-4-4, 10 KO’s, was the next fight of the night. The two fighters slugged it out in intense heavyweight action. Hernandez had to be warned on more than one occasion to keep his punches up though it didn’t seem to sway the outcome. A lot of the more clean and crisper blows were landed by Dawejko as the fight carried on. Dawejko rocked and bloodied Hernandez in the latter part of the sixth round and looked as though he was aiming to get him out of there. Ultimately the judges saw the fight as a split draw. This surely had to ruffle Dawejko as much of the crowd felt he did enough to win.

Ruben Villa, 5-0, 3 KO’s, got off to a dominant start against Luis Diaz, 2-1, 1 KO. Villa looked very sharp and levied a number of unanswered shots off on Diaz who seem to be a notch too slow. Villa was able to make Diaz miss on a good majority of his shots. Villa dominated throughout the fight and forced referee Kenny Chevalier to step in and stop the fight during the sixth round.

Hasim “Gold Blooded” Rahman, JR,, 1-0, 1 KO, brought the crowd to their feet during the introduction and seconds into his 40 second first round technical knockout of Ralph Alexander 0-1. This was Rahman, JR.’s much anticipated debut and he looked good for as long as the fight lasted and will get to test his mettle in a heavyweight division that is starting to see an array of new talent.

Glenn Dezurn, 9-0, 6 KO’s, and Leroy Davila, 5-1, 3 KO’s, opened up the Showtime ‘ShoBox’ televised portion of the fight card. The two fought a fairly quick paced fought that saw them go back and forth with combinations. Dezurn landed the heavier shots between the two during the third and fourth rounds which likely allowed him to take those two rounds. Through it all Davila didn’t back down. By the fifth and sixth round the fight started to sway in Davila’s favor as he started to land the more cleaner shots.

Davila hut Dezurn to the body midway through the 8th and final round and tried his damndest to take him out before getting caught himself in the back and forth barrage swinging the momentum in Dezurn favor. The two turned a tight contest into a tight affair and finished with a standing ovation from the crowd. In the end all three judges scored the fight 78-74 for Glenn Dezurn improving his undefeated record 9-0 while Davila suffered his first loss of his young career.

Malik Hawkins, 11-0, 8 KO’s, made quick work busting up the left eye of Carlos Soto, 13-1-2, 7 KO’s, in the first round of the co-main event. He forced Soto to take a knee towards the end of the round after having his eye checked by the doctor at ringside. In the second Hawkins didn’t let up and teed off on Soto repeatedly. The doctor called off the fight before Soto could answer the third round giving Hawkins his 11th victory.
Dmitry Bivol vs Samuel Clarkson

In the main event of the night rising prospect Dmitry Bivol, 10-0, 8 KO’s,faced off against Samuel Clarkson, 19-4, 12 KO’s, in a light heavyweight bout. Bivol wasted no time in laying heavy leather on Clarkson and dropped him within seconds of the fight. He immediately followed up for the kill and laid into Clarkson mercilessly. Clarkson was again dropped and visibly hurt from the pounding. Somehow Clarkson was able to make it to the end of the round.

Clarkson landed a few good shots of his own and snapped back Bivol’s head to start the second round. Overall, Bivol wasn’t fazed and continued his onslaught though again, Clarkson made it through the round. Bivol fired off with hard, precision shots in the third and Bivol dropped Clarkson for good in the fourth as he wasn’t able to answer referee Harvey Dock’s count and the fight was waved off. Bivol looked dominant and will only get better with each fight.

The final bout of the night, off air, was Travis “Seveer” Reeves, 14-2-2, 7 KO’s, winning a back and forth unanimous decision over Taneal “Spider’ Goyco, 9-10-1, 4 KO’s.

The MGM at National Harbor seems to be a new hotspot for boxing shows and with plenty of top level boxers coming out of the Washington, D.C., boxing area it should only get better. There were many pros from the area in attendance for the fight action, including standout Gary Russell, JR., will be the next to headline a show at the new arena.

With that said, hats off to another night of great boxing and stay tuned for the next round.

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